1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to information storage and retrieval, and more particularly to a method of searching for information in a database or other storage device based on a given set of preferences specified by a user. The invention further relates to a system and computer process having a program for accomplishing the same objectives.
2. Description of the Related Art
The advent of the database marked a substantial advance in information technology. Among other things, it has enabled large quantities of information to be stored at a central location and manipulated by built-in application software. The appeal of the database has only been magnified in recent years. Today, databases are equipped with search tools that will allow users to retrieve information by specifying one or more key words. The results of the search are then returned in mere seconds, a task which would have taken hours if manually performed.
The business world quickly realized the advantages of the database. Law enforcement uses the database to maintain criminal files, and the medical profession uses it to organize patient records. Other databases manage accounts, perform inventory control, store census data, and implement a variety of administrative and governmental functions. In one way or another, virtually every type of business and individual has been affected by use of the database.
Merchants have benefitted from marketing databases in their pursuit to sell products. Typically, these databases are loaded with customer information (e.g., demographic data) that can be searched to determine which customers might be inclined to purchase a particular product of interest. This is especially useful in finding customers in so-called niche markets, i.e., specific segments of the market which have demonstrated an affinity for certain products. The toy market is an example of one. Instead of mass mailings and other manual approaches, merchants can search their databases to find individuals or businesses having traits which are likely to match certain products. These customers, or customer prospects, can then be pursued with a potentially higher rate of success.
In spite of these advantages, conventional marketing database approaches have drawbacks. Perhaps most significantly, results from conventional marketing database searches tend to be largely incoherent. They are, for example, often substantively deficient in that they are output in no particular order of relevance to the one or more products being sold. Consequently, sales agents have no real assurance that the information produced from their searches includes the best candidates for their products.
Second, many results from conventional marketing database searches are superfluous in nature. These results, for example, are often cluttered with customer contact information, which is considered superfluous, at least initially, because many of the results likely will not prove to be of value. Conventional marketing database search results, thus, tend not to be concise.
Third, results from conventional marketing database searches are often too many in number to be comprehensible. In these cases, sales agents are left with the unenviable task of wading through pages and pages of largely irrelevant output just to locate customer prospect that might prove worthy of pursuit. There is a real likelihood, then, that important customer prospects may be overlooked when results of the search turn out to be large.
The above-noted drawbacks are not unique to marketing databases. Other information systems suffer from the same or similar drawbacks, and thus are at least equally impaired as a research tool.
From the foregoing discussion, it is clear that information systems in use today are still rudimentary in nature. Word searches performed on them generate results which are often substantively wanting and incoherent, thereby adding to the workload of users by requiring them to perform additional investigative work.
A need therefore exists for a method of optimizing the retrieval of information from an information system, one which produces search results in a substantively meaningful and concise way. In the marketing field especially, a need exists for a method which can be customized to output only that customer prospect information which is the best or most relevant in relation to a particular product, and which is also free from superfluous information.